Philosophy of logic

The development of the mathematical logic in the twentieth century and the Formal logic with symbolic logic in the late nineteenth century, the philosophy of logic has got a new form. The concepts which are traditionally treated by logic but has got no part in the formal logic has gotten a new term philosophy of logic or philosophical logic.

The examining of the nature of logic and the scope of logic has been main purpose to which the grounds of philosophy are devoted to. The issues that are arising in logic are clearly taken into consideration by making proper critical analysis, investigation and intellectual reflection. The aspects that are not included in the formal logic and the aspects outside the formal logic have become the branch of philosophical logic. In philosophical logic, the formal logical techniques are applied to the philosophical problems.

“To say that that which is is not or that which is not is, is a falsehood; and to say that which is is and that which is not is not, is true” , these are words of Aristotle which shows apparently that truism has not proved unproblematic.

Truth has been defined by so many philosophers. Of that the Tarskis definition of truth gained some importance. He separated truth into necessary truth and logical truths. The necessary truth will remain the truth in whatever circumstances. It doesn’t care about the state of the world, and it can be put in all possible worlds. On the other hand, the Logical truths strongly depend on the logical constants. The meaning of the logical truths is true only owing to the meaning of their logical constants only. Taking into consideration the formal logic, there a logical truth is just considered as a statement which would be true in all possible interpretations, but it is the analytic truth which has got a subject concept and a predicate concept where the predicate concept is contained within the subject concept.

As a whole, philosophy of logic may be understood as the study of truths deriving the meanings from the terms that are used. Aristotle’s observation about simple truth of logic “If sight is perception, the objects of sight are objects of perception” which says that truth can be comprehended without giving consideration to any opinions as like what is the relationship of sight to perception is.

The terms like true, false, valid, inconsistent, and self-contradictory are widely used by Logics.

Questions:

• What is Aristotle’s understanding of truth?
• What is the concern of the philosophy of Logic?